‘It’s a village.’ Hellenic chef discusses community love after window vandalism
After Hellenic chef Nikol Zarbalas arrived at her Coral Springs restaurant on Saturday to find broken glass and debris everywhere, the community stepped up.
While the vandals who broke 10 windows of the new restaurant haven’t been identified, having acted under the cover of some type of smoke bomb, police are continuing to investigate.
“The community has been absolutely amazing,” Zarbalas told the Coral Springs News on March 25. “Between the Red Meat Lovers Club and the people with that group, they covered the cost of the windows, which was essentially the cost of the (insurance) deductible.”
The window repairs are expected to happen within the next day or so, and the estimated cost is around $11,000, since the panes of glass were decades old, Zarbalas shared.
She asked a friend who set up a GoFundMe to pause it, since the restaurant doesn’t need any more money for the windows, but people are continuing to give.
“It’s amazing the way that everyone has come through,” Zarbalas said. “Somebody just walked through the door and said he needed to see the owner. I was working in the kitchen, and he handed me a wad of cash and said, ‘Don’t give up.’ And that just made me cry.”
“The tears were not because we had some broken windows and somebody wanted to be mean,” she continued. “It’s from the incredible love we feel.”
The chef said she’ll put any extra money back into the community.
Surveillance footage from the business next to Hellenic captured a vehicle arriving on March 21, then at 6:02 a.m., smoke filled the area, Zarbalas said. She arrived an hour and a half later to begin setting up for a baby shower breakfast when she discovered the damage.
Zarbalas said police believe the cloud came from a smoke bomb that the culprits tried and failed to throw into the restaurant after breaking the first window. The cameras inside the restaurant only picked up smoke and broken glass.
Shortly after the vandalism, a glass company brought over plexiglass from another job site as a temporary fix, and by the same day, the Greek restaurant on Atlantic Boulevard was operating at capacity.
“Anyone who knows us and has been through these doors knows why this is special, and that’s why the response is what it is,” she said.
So many people came to the restaurant to show support that Zarbalas said the Tuesday night dinner rush looked like a Saturday.
“This is what Hellenic is all about, it’s a village,” she said, adding everyone is trying to help in any way they can. “Business owners in the community, salons, photographers, people saying, ‘We live here, we eat here, our kids go to school with your kids.’”
A detective with the Coral Springs Police Department was investigating at the restaurant on March 24 and is working to collect all of the camera footage. The investigation is ongoing.